The Daughter's Promise (ARC)
Page 30
‘Oh Hame,’ said Willa. ‘Sorry, but we’re about to go out.’
‘Can Hamish come too?’ asked Annabelle. ‘I’d love to feed him up!’ Her eyes shone with anticipation.
Willa shrugged agreeably.
‘Oh good! Now, Hamish,’ said Annabelle, ‘where’s the best place for lunch around here for a growing boy? Somewhere that also does excellent dessert.’
Hamish sidled up to her and put his arm around her, then looked across at Willa and winked. ‘How long are you staying, Nana Anna? Because I can think of at least four or five.’
Willa felt the tears well in her eyes, and she looked down to blink them away. She realised the room had gone silent, and when she looked up again, Annabelle was retrieving a handkerchief from her pants pocket. She blew her nose vigorously.
‘Just a week, darling boy,’ she said quickly. ‘This time’s just a flying visit. But I can come back again another time if you like, and we can try them all.’
‘Awesome,’ said Hamish, cramming a chocolate cream into his mouth. ‘Let’s go and eat. I’m starving.’
Want to read another unputdownable and emotional page-turner from Sarah Clutton? Read Good Little Liars here now.
Good Little Liars
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Emma held the photo for a long moment before her eyes focused on the girl’s face. She dropped it and let out a muted cry. The girl was Tessa.
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Loving wife and mother Emma rarely thinks about the day twenty-five years ago that her friend Tessa fell to her death, or the secret that she made Emma swear to keep just hours before. But when her marriage implodes, Emma and her daughter find themselves moving into the headmaster’s former cottage on the grounds of her old school – Denham House. And there, Emma finds the photograph: an explicit image of Tessa, looking directly at the camera.
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Old friends Marlee and Clementine, are home for a reunion. But they don’t want to talk about Tessa’s accident, and with the demands of single parenthood, Emma has plenty to distract her… but she can’t shake the image of the photograph. Or the thought that it’s proof of something she had long suspected: Dr Brownley, now headmaster, was involved with Tessa. Was it a mistake to keep quiet about what she knew?
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Marlee and Clementine have their own complex feelings about returning to their hometown. And when Emma starts to question what really happened to Tessa, each woman must deal with the consequences of decisions they made all those years ago. Because the more Emma digs into the past, the more she discovers that everyone remembers it differently, and that the innocent schoolgirls she thought she knew are hiding some very big secrets.
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A page-turning novel about family drama, lies, and the secrets we keep to protect those we love. Perfect for fans of Liane Moriarty, The Silent Wife and Kerry Lonsdale.
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Books by Sarah Clutton
Good Little Liars
The Daughter’s Promise
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Available in audio
Good Little Liars (available in the UK and the US)
A Letter from Sarah
My sincere thanks to you for reading The Daughter’s Promise. I loved writing it while spending time around the windy cliffs and the stunning beach that inspired its Tasmanian setting. If you’d like to be one of the first to hear about my next book, you can sign up at the following link. Your email address will never be shared and you can unsubscribe at any time.
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If you enjoyed The Daughter’s Promise, I’d be so grateful if you could write a short public review so that other readers can have the benefit of your recommendation and insights. It really helps people to discover my books.
I love hearing from readers. So please, do get in touch via my Facebook page, through Twitter or on Goodreads.
Thanks, and happy reading!
Sarah Clutton
www.sarahclutton.com.au
Acknowledgements
I always said that if I wrote a book set near the ocean, it would be based around my favourite little beachside hamlet in north-west Tasmania. Sisters Cove is a fictional town, but for those of you who live on the north-west coast, you might recognise the beach and the windy capes that inspired this novel.
For me, this book is about finding the feeling of home. For those who have moved around a bit in life, sometimes it’s the search for that feeling that forges our path. I have dedicated it to my mother and my big sister because a long time ago, the farmland around the real Sisters Cove was a place the three of us called home. It is a special place for us, filled with memories of enormous family gatherings, with my beautiful grandmother Judy Sadler always in the middle, seeking out stories. To those three extraordinary women, thank you for always looking after me and encouraging me to write.
To my extended Tasmanian family, who constantly welcome us back with open arms, thank you for inspiring this book. To my stepfather, Greg Clutton, who adopted our place and our huge family, you taught me that a home can be made wherever you go, as long as there is love.
To Jan Sadler, Ruth Stendrup and Missy Bennett, my first readers, who have lived large parts of their lives on the north-west coast of Tasmania, thank you for your wonderful input and suggestions. And Ruthie – thank you for inspiring the Merrivale gardens.
To Sally and Duncan Sadler, your beach house with the glorious views is where my character of Willa stayed when she visited Sisters Cove, and it is where I managed to hammer out a large part of the story, inspired by the sound of the waves. Thank you for letting me use it.
To my mother, Helen Clutton, and my sisters Kate Clutton and Sam Jenkins, thank you for your initial chapter-by-chapter encouragement, input and ideas.
To Ann Brooks, Sarah Jones, Lisa Cornes, Judith Jenkins and Meg Jenkins, you are superstars. Your willingness to slog through the finer detail helped to shape and shine the final story. Fiona Leahy, thank you for running your legal-eagle eye over the almost final version. I take full responsibility for any erroneous applications of estate law. (It may well have been my worst subject at law school, although my friend Susan might quite reasonably tell you that was tax law.)
To my brilliant mate Dr Stephen Barnett, thank you for your medical input, although sadly, much of it was chopped when my lovely editor and I decided to send Dan’s character in a different direction. (It saved Dan quite a lot of medical intervention, so at least the hospital system was a winner there.)
To my editor, Emily Gowers, you are endlessly positive and a pleasure to work with. You also have brilliant story sense. You improved everything about this book and I dedicate the climax (and this well-deserved exclamation mark) to you! To the rest of the incredible Bookouture team, I feel very lucky to have found you. What an inspiring and energetic group of professionals you are to work with.
A particular thanks to my lovely husband, Justin Lewis, who under strict time requirements gave me detailed feedback on early drafts and also said quite nice things about my writing, even though I had already offered to cook dinner and take the rubbish out. You could only have been raised in a fabulous and kind family, and I owe a huge debt of gratitude to your parents, John and Judith Lewis. This book is also about the love between parents and children, and about family, and I am so grateful to be part of yours.
Finally, because my writing life revolves around them, I need to mention my children, Henry, Grace and Georgina. Thank you for putting up with my distracted head, and for pretty much raising yourselves. Full marks for the amazing job you are doing. I am very lucky.
Published by Bookouture 2020
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An imprint of Storyfire Ltd.
Carmelite House
50 Victoria Embankment
London EC4Y 0DZ
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www.bookouture.com
Copyright © Sarah Clutton, 2020
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Sarah Clutton has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work.
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All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publishers.
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eBook ISBN: 978-1-83888-031-6
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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places and events other than those clearly in the public domain, are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.